Procurement Category Specialist - Midrand at The Coca-Cola Company

Job Description
Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) has an exciting opportunity in our Procurement department. We are looking for a talented individual with relevant skills and experience as a Procurement Category Specialist, which is based in CCBSA Midrand. The successful candidate will report directly to the Head of Procurement.

Key purpose statment

The Category Specialist is responsible to ensure that strategically sourced contracts of CCBA Procurement for certain commodities are implemented, executed and complied with.

The Category Specialist works in cooperation with HQ CCBA Procurement Category Teams to support the development and execution of category practices for all allocated categories and sub-categories as well as management of supply risk.  

The Category Specialist is the main point of interaction between HQ CCBA Procurement, Innovation Projects Manager, Raw Materials Supply Manager, Packaging Excellence Manager and any other Internal Stakeholder.

This position is also responsible for Supplier Relationship Management in country for these categories.

Key Duties & Responsibilities
Key Outputs and Accountabilities 

Stakeholder alignment - executes HQ CCBA Procurement categories in the country, leads contract implementation & drives contract compliance

• Works in close collaboration with the Procurement Leadership Team to ensure local acceptance of new contracts.
• Drive the implementation, execution and compliance management of Procurement Leadership Team’s decisions.
• Coordinate contract implementation tasks with Content Specialists and Internal Stakeholders.
• Develop, implement and manage Service Level Agreements between CCBSA and supplier to ensure compliance to agreed strategically sourced contracts.
• Closely monitor internal stakeholder contract compliance, define and take approved corrective actions to improve contract compliance in alignment with Procurement Leadership Team.
• Assist the HQ CCBA Procurement Team with country specific requirements for the development of Category Strategies for certain categories in alignment with Internal Stakeholder requirements.
• Supports with regards to the identification of stakeholders in order to facilitate strategy development and sourcing execution projects.
• Build and enhance key customer relationships to ensure customer satisfaction within the business and the countries.   
• Ensure that all negotiated contracts are loaded and updated on all IT (ERP) systems as required. 

Support key sourcing initiatives and management of selected key suppliers

• Support the Procurement Leadership Team in their role in providing analysis and support on the definition of the CCBA category spend baseline and category profile, incl. risk assessment and SRM strategy. 
• Provide information to Procurement Leadership Team as per defined templates for requirements, analysis and market intelligence to support them.
• Support supplier development activities for key suppliers aligned with the Procurement Leadership team and strategy, lead cross functional review meetings with suppliers in order to improve performance and further reduce cost.
• Represent Procurement in the country for the Innovation / Promotions forum for related categories.
• Perform Category Manager activities for projects with limited complexity and execute end-to-end sourcing projects for less complex categories 

Manage internal customer relationships for local categories

• Manage internal customer’s feedback on procurement organisation and supplier performance.
• Conduct periodic surveys to measure customer feedback for continuous improvement. 
• Sets up and coordinates cross functional supplier development programmes, following up and managing the relationship with internal customers and suppliers.
• Improve and reinforce procurement’s profile and recognition within the internal customer community.

Manage supplier relationships for certain categories

• In line with defined Procurement Leadership Team strategy, support the classification and categorisation of suppliers, including supplier evaluation definition.
• Continuously track supplier performance (utilising data / reports) and provide performance report to Procurement Leadership Team.
• Initiate and conduct supplier audits according to the defined framework under the guidance of Procurement Leadership Teams.
• Identify potential contract improvement opportunities.

Skills, Experience & Education
Qualifications and Experience 

Qualifications 

• A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in related field with specific focus on Supply Chain/Finance/Procurement. 
• An Honours degree in Supply Chain/Finance/Procurement would be an added advantage.
• Competent in Microsoft Office. 

Experience 

• 5+ years of business experience with 3 years minimum in Strategic and Operational Purchasing within a FMCG environment being an added advantage.

Additional Experience:

• Recognised qualification in procurement would be considered an asset.  In depth knowledge of procurement, both strategic and operational as well as preferably working in an international environment will be a benefit.

Competencies 

• Business Acumen, to drive business performance.
• Commercial Acumen.
• Compliance, Governance and Ethics.
• Change Management Skills.
• Stakeholder relationship management.
• Negotiation Skills.    
• Networking, Influencing and Communication Skills.
• Project Management Skills.

Judgement and decision making  

• Inform critical decisions with regards to Strategic and Operational procurement.
• Ensure strategies are implemented, executed and managed as per categories defined by Procurement Leadership Teams.